18 | Thursday, April 22, 2021 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY LIFE
formances, audiences will not only get to know these musicians but can also enjoy music pieces with The move distinctive folk elements written by Chinese composers of different generations.” that took According to Xu Jian, the general manager of the Forbidden City Concert Hall, the series of concerts a decade celebrating the 100th anniversary of the CPC was kicked off by con ductor Zheng Jian, who led the all China wasn’t on my radar. male Beijing Master Choir to My heart was in Europe, the perform patriotic and folk songs at crucible of Western theater the venue on March 7. In the weeks that I’ve loved and studied after, audiences enjoyed a diversity since I was 14 years old. I of shows, including recitals, choirs earned my graduate degree and traditional music. in the United Kingdom and From April 10, Zheng has been planned to live there. Things touring with the symphony orches didn’t go to plan. I landed a tra and singers from the Tianjin great job back in America, Song and Dance Theater. Their teaching drama. Years passed gala, titled Dongfang Hong (The and I still hadn’t made it East Is Red), is being performed 17 back to Europe. I did, howev times across the country. The show er, find myself working at a is based on a classic piece which university. This is when Chi was performed at the Great Hall of na knocked on my door. the People in Beijing in 1964, mark The university encouraged ing the 15th anniversary of the employees to founding of People’s Republic of audit classes as China. part of our pro Long March Suite, a largescale fessional devel symphonic and choral concert, will opment. They The symphony orchestra and singers from the Tianjin Song and Dance Theater, along with the Beijing Philharmonic Choir, perform be held at the Forbidden City Con offered two for Dongfang Hong, a gala concert, at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing in December. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY cert Hall under the baton of Zheng eign language on June 25. It was written by Xiao Stephanie options: Chi Hua (191685) in 1965. Featuring 12 Stone nese and Japa poems by Xiao about the Long Second nese. For no March — an epic strategic transfer Thoughts better reason by the Red Army that took place than I liked Chi from 1934 to 1935, the suite has nese food a little more, I been a classic and popular among decided I’d challenge myself Pianists to set the tune Chinese audiences of different and take the course. Two ages. semesters in, and I was “When we perform those classic hooked! I cofounded the Forbidden City venue will stage a musical extravaganza in June as part of songs, the warm feedback of the Chinese Culture Club on audiences prove that those songs campus. We attended the celebrations marking the Party’s 100th anniversary, Chen Nan reports. are timeless and we want to pass Spring Festival celebration them down to the younger genera hosted by our local Chinese ne stage, four pianos and tions, who can learn about the community center. I learned eight pianists may, at country’s history through those to make baozi and tried out first glance, seem a bit songs,” says conductor Zheng. my fledgling language skills crowded. But there is The Jingju Theater Company of at the local Chinese restau Ostill plenty of room for both talent Beijing will perform a concert fea rant. and entertainment. The admitted turing the company’s star perform The club wanted to hold a ly unusual arrangement will be ers, such as Zhang Huifang, Chi fundraiser benefiting a chari seen at the Forbidden City Concert Xiaoqiu and Du Zhenjie. Peking ty in China. We decided on a Hall in Beijing on June 10 when Opera, known as jingju in Chinese, foster home that, among oth eight young pianists perform combines several art forms, includ er things, supported orphans together. ing singing, dancing, martial arts with complex medical condi “It’s exciting even to think of the and acrobatics. UNESCO declared tions. We held a toy drive concert with four hands playing on it an intangible cultural heritage of and, a month later, a profes each piano on that night,” says Wu humanity in 2010. sor and a group of students Ying, a veteran pianist who is one According to Liu Tong, president from the university delivered of the organizers of the concert. of the company, this year, the com the toys and other supplies to As one of the concerts marking pany is staging more than 100 the foster home. I was envi the 100th anniversary of the found Peking Opera shows across the ous as I couldn’t travel with ing of the Communist Party of Chi country. Modern Peking Opera, them, but it cemented in me na, the event will cover a wide known as yang ban xi, as Liu says, is a desire to visit China. After repertoire, including such favorites Left: Conductor Yang Li, who will perform in the anniversary concerts, at a show with a children’s choir an important part of reviving the all, if I’m going to put in the as Birds Paying Homage to the Phoe in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in January. Right: Zheng Jian, artistic director of the Tianjin Song and 200yearold art form, which was work to learn a language, I nix Marriage, based on a popular Dance Theater, conducts at the December concert. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY popular among audiences during might as well go to the coun folk song of the same title written the 1970s and 1980s. Classic mod try itself! I made arrange by suona (Chinese doublereed ern Peking Opera works will be ments with the foster home woodwind instrument) player Ren According to Wu, the eight ten by composer Huang Huwei rearranged by Chen Peixun (1922 staged during a concert at the For to volunteer in exchange for Tongxiang. It was rearranged by young Chinese pianists will also (19322019) in 1958 and based on 2006) in 1975. bidden City Concert Hall on May 1, lodgings. My stay would last pianist Wang Jianzhong (1933 perform as soloists, featuring pie six folk songs from Sichuan prov “All eight young Chinese pianists including Raid on the White Tiger three weeks. 2016). Sing a Folk Song to the Party, ces composed by Chinese musi ince. Pianist Liu Yuntian will per are awardwinners and they stud Regiment and The Red Lantern, to A year of language learning which was first released in 1963 cians that have been inspired by form Autumn Moon over the Calm ied piano in China and later pur appeal to nostalgic fans. did not prepare me for the and written by Zhu Jian’er and Jiao folk culture from different regions. Lake, originally a popular folk song sued their studies abroad. Now, culture shock of being in a Ping, will also be rearranged as a Pianist Gu Jingdan will play Pic from Guangdong province written they are teaching at music schools Contact the writer at rural area in the (now devel piano piece. tures From Bashu, which was writ by Lyu Wencheng (18981981) and in China,” says Wu. “With their per [email protected] oped) outskirts of Beijing. Dirt roads, stray dogs, limit ed indoor heating combined with the language barrier was, initially, very unsettling. Tradition and transformation ensure cultural harvest Fortunately, the staff had compassion for me and helped me work through the KUNMING — In the 1990s, shift from American subur French photographer Yann Layma bia to rural China. stunned the Western world with Once the initial shock wore images of cascading rice terraces in off, I was completely Southwest China. Today the agri charmed. The street food was cultural wonder remains as grand incredible, the people were as ever, while the people there are friendly and curious, and the living more radiant lives. foster children were adora The terraced fields in Yuanyang ble. My rudimentary Chinese county in Yunnan province made it was pushed to its limit, but to the UNESCO World Heritage List came in handy as I haggled in 2013. with vendors at the dirt mar They were created by the Hani, ket. I used my weekends to an ethnic group that mostly inhab take in everything from the its the area across the Ailao Moun Forbidden City, Summer Pal tains. ace and the Great Wall. I also “I’ll show you how to catch fish,” Left: Cascading rice terraces set a majestic scene in Yuanyang county, Yunnan province. LIN YIGUANG / XINHUA Right: Ding Ji’nan (right), a took an impromptu trip to Ding Ji’nan, a 24yearold Hani member of the Hani ethnic group, and a colleague from her new media team livestream catching fish from water on a rice terrace in the Shaolin Temple in Henan social media enthusiast, says as she Dayutang village, Xinjie town, Yuanyang. CHEN XINBO / XINHUA province. I was two months introduces life on the terraced fields into what would become four to audiences across the country via years of extensive kung fu a shortvideo platform. returned to Yuanyang and estab 2,100 hectares of farmland. It has the inheritance of the Hani tradi 168,000 yuan. training and I wanted to see Ding quit her job years ago and lished a company dedicated to the driven 7,320 households to embrace tions and culture. Wu Canxi, a senior student at Sun the birthplace of this martial returned to her hometown, setting research and development of breed modern farm life, generating more In January 2018, a team led by Yatsen University, has seen art. My three weeks in China up a new media team introducing ing on paddy fields. than 152,600 yuan per hectare. Bao Jigang, a professor at Sun Yat remarkable changes in the lives of was a whirlwind romance! ethnic traditions and the local land Yue’s company launched a plat New projects, agricultural modes sen University in the southern prov the villagers since she came to the And, just as I was getting scape online to the outside world. form that allows purchasers to trace and ways of life have emerged. ince of Guangdong, came to village to conduct a field study and comfortable, it was time to In March 2019, the team upload the origin of the agricultural prod Despite the sweeping changes tak investigate the traditional housing survey in January. head home. I knew before I ed their first video, in which Ding, ucts. In addition, a smart service ing place, the Hani people still at the invitation of the local govern Now, most can speak Mandarin, left that I wanted to return, resplendent in her traditional Hani platform was developed to facilitate proudly embrace their traditional ment. and some also speak a few words of not just for a visit, but to live. clothing, shared the process of mak unmanned monitoring of seedlings culture. The team proposed an “Azheke English and skillfully use comput Ten long years later, an ing local pastries. and remote consultations regard Azheke, a village located in a core plan” — motivating villagers to pro ers to settle accounts. opportunity presented itself. The rural lifestyle has attracted ing crop diseases for paddy where area of the heritage site, is a living tect their traditional houses via a Wu has provided advice for the I left everything except my an increasing number of viewers to ducks and fish are bred as well. museum displaying the Hani peo dividend system. tourism company’s operation and 16yearold cat, Darcy, and her channel, and the young woman The creative ecosystem has prov ple’s traditional housing — mostly A tourism company was set up in training programs for villagers. we are now happily two years has come to be known as a spokes en a success. consisting of mud and wood with 2018, with 65 households receiving “The key is that everyone knows into our new lives in Beijing. person of the Hani rice terraces. Statistics from authorities show straw roofs. 70 percent of its share. In 2020, the that they can protect their culture It took me a decade to move Ding’s efforts have further raised that since 2017, more than 35.64 In the past, the income of the vil per capita net annual income of the while earning a living, so they volun to China. the profile of the agricultural heri million yuan ($5.46 million) has lagers was so meager that most villagers through the system tarily devote themselves to it,” says It was worth the wait. tage, and at the same time, transfor been invested in the heritage site to young people chose to work out exceeded 6,300 yuan. Wu. mations have been taking place. facilitate the transition to the rice side their village. The old houses In late March, villagers received Contact the writer at In 2016, 49yearold Yue Shao fishduck ecosystem on more than were crumbling, posing a threat to the latest dividends totaling XINHUA [email protected]